JAZZ SPOTLIGHT

STEVE GROSSMAN

“In New York”

Dreyfus

* * * *

This set captures, as well as any recording possibly can, the intensity and brio of a heated live session. Recorded at Sweet Basil in Greenwich Village in 1991, tenor man Grossman, in the midst of a splendid revitalization of his career, is backed in a very rare sideman appearance by McCoy Tyner, bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Art Taylor.

These are lengthy--and, for the most part, broiling--selections in which the musicians stretch out: “Speak Low” and “Impressions” run longer than 10 minutes each, and the rest, save one, go nine minutes or better.

Mixing the melodic complexity of Sonny Rollins with the hue and cry of John Coltrane, Grossman is generally ablaze--though he is tender and wooing on the two ballads. Mostly, though, he plays gritty, punchy lines that are delivered with a tone that is alternately rich and rhapsodic, then spare and straining.

In his accompaniment, Tyner jabs at him with rocking chords, then stands back and “strolls” (or doesn’t play), giving the music a great deal of space. In his solos, the pianist offers robust statements that threaten to burst at the seams.

For sheer exhilarating energy and fire in the post-bop mode, this session is hard to top.